OEM Racks

The flat racks make a lot of wind noise (especially above 70 mph on my OBW). The round ones don't (so I am told by one of the service giuys), but the flat ones look nicer.

I bought a set of Yakima racks for my 02 RS. I wanted a rooftop box for extra cargo, and wanted to put skis in it. This meant I needed a long box. So with those constraints, this is what I ended up with:

1) Yakima towers and racks. I could mount the towers further apart with Yakima than Thule. This becomes important later. 2) A Thule Mountaineer box. I liked the massive amount of cargo space, and the length could easily swallow skis. I hate dragging skis around unprotected on the roof. The dirt and grit that gets everywhere is unbelievable. 3) Interestingly enough, the mount points to attach a Yakima box to the crossbars require a wider spread than the Thule. So with the wider spread of the Yakima bars, I was able to mount the narrower requirement Thule box.

The round Yakima bars howl like a banshee on the roof though. It's not too bad with the box on them, but just the bars alone is disturbingly loud. I don't drive with them on unless I'm in "cargo mode". A wind deflector is supposed to help with that, but I was out of roof budget.

The narrower profile bars from the dealer-type Yakima racks should be quieter. The "true" version of the racks are pretty beefy. There's some serious heavy metal in those O- shaped bars.

I bought mine from the Coquitlem store that is a part of

thanks for your comment concerning something you did. I did read it and it was slightly interesting, but it has nothing to do with my question about the compatibility of various oem systems.

From my original post:

It was a direct response to the person he directly replied to. It doesn't have much to do with you. These are open, threaded discussions. We aren't all here for your convenience, although if you're polite and lucky you may get helpful answers.

Save your money and pass on the Yakima spoiler. I wrapped some thin bubble wrap around the center of my front bar and 99% of the howling was eliminated. I've also heard that a piece of rope wrapped around the round bar will do the same thing.

I sell Thule and Yakima. The answer is YES!

FWIW, Both Thule and Yakima make clips to mount to each others crossbars.

Barry

1.) Try a wind deflector. It dosen't matter what shape the crossbars are if the wind is deflected over them. 2.) Car dealers don't know crap about racks, they sell cars. Bike, ski, and outdoor specialty shops often know a lot. Yakima and Thule regularly offer genuine training to folks who peddle their wares.

Barry

You're welcome.